Long before John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens was published, New Jersey’s vast, dreamlike swath of sand and scrubby pines was seen as a wasteland by the unfamiliar, a place full of pirate lore, monsters, ...

Venomous snakes, not so much. Yet, New Jersey is home to venomous timber rattlesnakes ... the northernmost portion of the Highlands, along with the Pine Barrens. The copperhead is limited to ...